[Polar Bear]

While not immediately, we may consider a move sometime soon and would like to hear your thoughts and experiences regarding FSBO.

Thanks in advance.

[manaboutown]

I have done it a few times without any problem.

[JimJohnson]

Unfortunately, at 6% realty’s fees, we are being robbed of 10s of thousands of dollars by agents. I would pay $10,000 flat fee, but at 6%, we are paying unreasonable fees for a few hours work. Go to homelister where you have the same services for a flat $500.00 fee.

[Tom C]

If I could offer just one piece of advice:

As a buyer, I was underwhelmed (generally speaking) by the quality of the photos found on FSBO sites. I did 90% of my “weeding out” work on line. There are currently about 1400 properties for sale each day in The Villages. MAKE YOURS STAND OUT! Find a neighbor or friend or even pay someone for this service if you don’t know anyone who has a good digital camera. Turn on ALL your lights and use additional lighting if needed (flash etc.). Nothing worst than fuzzy, dim photos taken using an old phone camera.

I will leave the declutter talk for someone else to cover...

Good Luck!

[VillageIdiots]

I haven't sold a home here yet but I can't imagine not trying FSBO before listing it with someone. There are tools and tips easily found online to help do it yourself and here there is even a website (probably more than 1) that you can post it on. If you are in a crunch and need to do all you can to sell it as fast as possible, then maybe consider listing it. All that said, while some get lucky and sell homes listed with brokers in hours or days, it doesn't always happen that way and agents put in more than a "few hours work" to try to sell your home. They have overhead, including advertising your home, and I have had many agents tell me that, by the time they get their cut of a commission, they have more than earned that money. However, sometimes it doesn't seem quite fair to pay the same percentage on a higher priced home that you would pay on a lower priced home when it may have taken the same amount of work and cost to sell both. So, say it takes 25 days to get a 200K home sold and the commission is 12K, and a highly desirable 500K home could sell in a week and the commission would be 30K.

I've had mixed experiences with FSBO prior to coming here. I bought my last home as a FSBO and sold the previous one as FSBO in 2 days. But 14 years later, I tried selling that same home FSBO for several months and barely got any interest, other than 1 party. So, I ended up listing it, and 8 months later it sold to the same person that was interested when it was FSBO but wouldn't pull the trigger. Fortunately, the Realtor was willing to negotiate on the commission since I had prior dealings with the same party.

[thetruth]

We, most of us, do not have sales experience, sell a home once or twice in a lifetime and so are not really qualified to sell your home.

FSBO-Often the home is overpriced. Both the buyer and the seller thinks they will both save the brokers commission. Obviously, both cannot save the same money.

Commission. Remember you are contracting with SALESPEOPLE.
How do you choose? A typical game played I can get you xxxxx
you are thrilled with that much for your house as you paid xxxxxx
IT MEANS NOTHING. There is what it is worth. Here in the villages with so many homes basically the same it is fairly easy to get a value on your home. The game is you list with the person who claims they can get you the highest price and then when no one BUYS you are told perhaps, you should lower the price. What is the commission rate? Someone said and I've heard 7%. On a sale at 300,000 that is 21,000 dollars. You THINK hey Joe smith broker got me top dollar. ALL THAT MATTERS OR SHOULD MATTER TO YOU IS WHAT YOU NET.
300,000 -21,000=279,000. Assuming the buyer will be getting a mortgage. Will they qualify for a 300,000 mortgage? Will your home appraise for 300,000?
Can YOU put up with people? They say they will be over at 3:00. You clean up all the papers etc that you normally have on your desk and they show up at 6:00 just as you are sitting down to diner. Of course they bring their not trained grand kids, and or their dog. You think that color you spent soooo much time picking out is the cat meow and the first words out of their mouths is who the heck picked out that ugly ............
Can you deal with seller remorse? Wow I bet we should coulda mighta gotten more?
Our previous home. First of all we paid 4% to a full service experience broker. I had tracked sales prices in my neighborhood compared them to listed price and to the ZILLOW PRICE. The brokers WILL of course argue with me and discredit ZILLOW-they need to do that. My study done over a year showed that homes sell about 5% above or below the Zillow price. I took suggestions from our broker and then went with MY studies. The HIGH zillow price plus 6%. Typical as a new listing our broker did an opened house. If I recall we did two of them. Turn out was great ???? about 40 people each time.
We sold the house in TWO WEEKS and we got A CASH BUYER.
Aside-from former neighbors I know the buyer put a fortune into the home. New drive, new siding, extensive landscaping. It does look nice. I will guess they put 100,000 into our home.
Now FIVE YEARS LATER Zillow says it is worth 5% more than we got for it.
People, being amateurs do not even think about what it cost you to keep a home-each month it takes to sell it.

[mills3186]

We just sold our "up north" home by owner on Zillow; went without a hitch and sold in 4 days. Took lots of pictures in all sorts of light to get best shots, looked over other people's listings for wording ideas and hired an appraiser to be sure we were not under or over priced. The appraisal was well worth the $400 (the home appraisal's done by bank for closing are not as thorough). Our attorney charged $1200, closed at title company. To list it with a real estate agent, it would have cost $19,000. If you have a fairly marketable home in a decent area, it's well worth it. If you think it might be harder to market, you might benefit from realtor/MLS. Just do your homework ahead of time and check out all of the homes sold in your area over the past 6 months.

[manaboutown]

Friends of mine over the last twenty years or so have sold maybe a dozen homes FSBO. They always use the best photographer they can find which in CA has cost them $500-$700. They consider this money well spent! Then they list on the local MLS at a cost of $125-$250 through a broker who does this for folks. For a few bucks they buy the purchase contract forms they will need at the local Realtor Association office. Right now they are preparing their condo in Hawaii for sale. They may even put it it on Craigslist before going on MLS this time.

Most homes as lived in by folks have too much "stuff" in them. My friends remove and store their extra "stuff" and "stage" their homes when they put them on the market. Professional stagers are available and may be worthwhile hiring, maybe not, depending...

The homes they have sold have been in the $500K to $2M range so they have saved a lot of money on commissions.

Now they are experienced and know how to price their homes but I advise getting an appraisal. The $400 cost mentioned by a previous poster is a very worthwhile investment. If you overprice the property it will not sell, go stale on the market and eventually sell for less money than it could have brought if originally priced right. On the other hand if you underprice the property you will obviously lose money that way. The appraisal will also show a potential buyer the current market value of the property.

[Abby10]

Originally Posted by Tom C

If I could offer just one piece of advice:

As a buyer, I was underwhelmed (generally speaking) by the quality of the photos found on FSBO sites. I did 90% of my “weeding out” work on line. There are currently about 1400 properties for sale each day in The Villages. MAKE YOURS STAND OUT! Find a neighbor or friend or even pay someone for this service if you don’t know anyone who has a good digital camera. Turn on ALL your lights and use additional lighting if needed (flash etc.). Nothing worst than fuzzy, dim photos taken using an old phone camera.

I will leave the declutter talk for someone else to cover...

Good Luck!

You and manaboutown make some very valid points. I have friends who took up real estate as a career move later in life and have come up with a "formula" as they call it which has been very successful for them. One of the things they stress is the photography. Their point is that most people will use the internet exclusively to "weed out", as you say Tom C, because time is so limited these days by work and/or the many other obligations we all have. As a result, often times the pictures on the internet will make or break whether a person will even consider your home. My friends suggested to never scrimp on the photography. The quality of those photos can make a big difference.

They also highly recommend staging, whether you do it yourself or hire someone. Get rid of any personal stuff and make the house as clean and fresh as possible, and absolutely no clutter not even behind closed doors and cabinets. If you're going to do the staging yourself, I'd take a look at some of the models right there in TV and take a page out of their book. The prep work you do before listing may make all the difference, not only in how much you get for your home but in how quickly it sells.

Thanks, Polar Bear, for starting this thread as we are considering the same thing. Good luck to you with whatever choice you make. Some great advice on this thread already!

[NotGolfer]

Last two houses we sold (NOT here though) we did via FSBO. Both times a realtor did bring our buyer in and in this case get only a 3% of the purchase price. In that endeavor we didn't have an attorney or anything like that. The realtor provided the paperwork and it all went smoothly. The last house was the one we sold to come here and we closed via mail.

[manaboutown]

My friends who have done a dozen FSBOs have at times cooperated with Realtors, essentially splitting the commission with them by paying them 3% of the sales price. That may be why they want to try Craigslist first so see if they can get a buyer themselves. Listing a FSBO on the MLS likely requires compensating a broker bringing in a buyer.

Their HI condominium may be salable without going through MLS; the same may be true for a home in TV.

The importance of the best possible photos: Last year my daughter who was living in California bought a house in Maryland based on its online photos. She more or less knew the area, had friends and family in the wider general area but shopped only on her computer for several months. The seller's photos are literally what sold her the house. My daughter had done all her homework only using her computer (no boots on the ground) and through a college friend obtained a broker. One day my daughter spotted a house newly listed that very day, called her broker and asked her to go look it over in person. The broker did a walkthrough that day while using FaceTime. My daughter made her offer that very day without seeing the house in person but subject to her personally seeing it, inspections and so on. The seller accepted my daughter's offer, then shortly thereafter received a couple backup offers. My daughter jumped on a plane, flew over and did what she needed to do in person. It all went very well and she is very happy with her house.

[Velvet]

Spunky daughter! If that house was in a certain part of San Diego I would have done the same. There was a house here in TV that “got away” last September because I caught bronchitis and another person beat me to it by flying here before I could and snapped it up.
To add to the thread’s topic, as a foreigner I was hesitant to get involved with FSBO, there was another house I liked a lot but I let go, because I was afraid of being scammed. With a realtor I felt safer.

[Midnight Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by JimJohnson

Unfortunately, at a 6% realty’s fees, we are being robbed of 10s of thousands of dollars by agents. I would pay $10,000 flat fee, but at 6%, we are paying unreasonable fees for a few hours work. Go to homelister where you have the same services for a flat $500.00 fee.

You are truly misinformed regarding many aspects of real estate. Not all brokers charge 6% and keep in mind that 6% fee is split between the listing broker and selling broker. Then, the agent gets her/his split from the broker and that figure varies and is between the broker and the agent.

It's very sad you feel you are being robbed at a 6% fee. I am assuming you had a very bad experience somewhere along the line.

And you think you are paying an unreasonable fee for a few hour's work? You really have no clue regarding how many hours an agent puts into listing a property servicing their seller and dealing with other agents! You also have no clue how much money and time an agent has into licensure, dues, advertising, open houses, showings, photography, listing fees, desk fees, real estate courses, etc. The list goes on and on.

You didn't mention the price of a property when you would only pay $10,000, but my guess is that if that was the case, you wouldn't have many showings; it's the old story -- you get what you pay for!

Most real estate agents are professionals and they work more than 40 hours a week at their job! They do not take their job lightly and that is how they earn a living. It's unfortunate and unreasonable that you feel it necessary to belittle those who do work in this field.

[JimJohnson]

Originally Posted by Midnight Cowgirl

You are truly misinformed regarding many aspects of real estate. Not all brokers charge 6% and keep in mind that 6% fee is split between the listing broker and selling broker. Then, the agent gets her/his split from the broker and that figure varies and is between the broker and the agent.

It's very sad you feel you are being robbed at a 6% fee. I am assuming you had a very bad experience somewhere along the line.

And you think you are paying an unreasonable fee for a few hour's work? You really have no clue regarding how many hours an agent puts into listing a property servicing their seller and dealing with other agents! You also have no clue how much money and time an agent has into licensure, dues, advertising, open houses, showings, photography, listing fees, desk fees, real estate courses, etc. The list goes on and on.

You didn't mention the price of a property when you would only pay $10,000, but my guess is that if that was the case, you wouldn't have many showings; it's the old story -- you get what you pay for!

Most real estate agents are professionals and they work more than 40 hours a week at their job! They do not take their job lightly and that is how they earn a living. It's unfortunate and unreasonable that you feel it necessary to belittle those who do work in this field.

I’m sure there are a few good ones, but in general, I have no respect for sales people, be it real estate or used cars. Are you an agent?

[dnobles]

Sorry I’d have a realtor We sold a house in 14days with a realtor. I don’t want to deal with people making appointments and not showing up, people not being qualified and bad offers. Everything was so easy. Personal observation has been many people who try to sell by themselves eventually turn it over to a professional. Best of luck what ever you choose.